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Learn Hardcore Serbian: Voda curi sa plafona. - Water is leaking from the ceiling.

Hardcore Serbian
/Renting and repairing a home
/Voda curi sa plafona.

Voda curi sa plafona.

Word

Voda curi sa plafona.

Meaning

Water is leaking from the ceiling.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Hardcore Serbian

Lesson

Renting and repairing a home

Breakdown of Voda curi sa plafona.

Questions & Answers about Voda curi sa plafona.

Why is it plafona and not plafon?

Because sa in this sentence requires the genitive case when it means from/off.

plafon = ceiling (dictionary form, nominative)
sa plafona = from the ceiling

So the noun changes form:

plafon → plafona

This is very common in Serbian after prepositions showing movement away from something:

sa stola = from the table
sa zida = from the wall
iz kuće = out of the house

What does sa mean here, and why not just s?

Here sa means from or off.

Serbian has the preposition s/sa. Both forms are basically the same word, and the choice often depends on pronunciation. Sa is used when it sounds easier or more natural before certain consonants.

So:

sa plafona = from the ceiling

You will also see:

s poda = from the floor
sa stola = from the table

In many cases, the difference between s and sa is phonetic rather than a difference in meaning.

What exactly does curi mean?

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Curi comes from the verb curiti, which means to leak, to drip, or to seep/run out slowly.

In this sentence, it suggests water is escaping where it should not be, so is leaking is often the best English equivalent.

Compare:

Voda curi. = The water is leaking / dripping.
Krv curi. = Blood is flowing/leaking.
Slavina curi. = The faucet is leaking.

So curiti is often used for unwanted or uncontrolled flow.

Why is there no word for the in Serbian?

Serbian does not have articles like a or the.

So:

voda can mean water or the water
plafon can mean ceiling or the ceiling

The exact meaning depends on context. In this sentence, English naturally uses the ceiling, but Serbian does not need a separate word for that.

Why is voda at the beginning of the sentence?

Voda is the subject, so putting it first is the most neutral word order.

Voda = water
curi = is leaking/dripping
sa plafona = from the ceiling

So the structure is basically:

subject + verb + prepositional phrase

Serbian word order is fairly flexible, though. You could also hear:

Sa plafona curi voda.

That version puts more focus on from the ceiling and sounds very natural too.

Is voda feminine?

Yes. Voda is a feminine noun.

You can often guess this because many feminine nouns end in -a in their basic form.

Examples:

voda = water
kuća = house
žena = woman

Because voda is feminine, adjectives and some past-tense forms would agree with it:

Hladna voda = cold water
Voda je bila hladna. = The water was cold.

Why is curi only one word? Where is is?

In the present tense, Serbian usually does not use a separate word like English is with ordinary verbs.

English:

Water is leaking.

Serbian:

Voda curi.

The form curi already means leaks / is leaking, depending on context.

This is normal in Serbian:

On radi. = He works / He is working.
Kiša pada. = Rain falls / It is raining.

Serbian present tense often covers both the simple present and the present continuous in English.

How do you pronounce curi?

A helpful approximation is TSOO-ree, but with a short u.

More specifically:

c in Serbian is pronounced like ts in cats
u is like oo in food
r is a tapped or rolled r
i is like ee in see

So curi sounds roughly like TSOO-ree.

Also note that Serbian spelling is very phonetic, so words are usually pronounced as written.

Could this sentence mean Water is dripping from the ceiling as well as Water is leaking from the ceiling?

Yes. Depending on context, curi can be translated as:

is leaking
is dripping
is running out
is seeping

If the ceiling has a leak and water is coming through, English might say:

Water is leaking from the ceiling.
Water is dripping from the ceiling.

The exact best translation depends on the situation, but the Serbian sentence works well for both ideas.

Would Sa plafona curi voda also be correct?

Yes, absolutely.

Voda curi sa plafona.
Sa plafona curi voda.

Both are correct. The difference is mainly emphasis.

Voda curi sa plafona. = neutral, straightforward
Sa plafona curi voda. = emphasizes where the water is coming from

Because Serbian has flexible word order, changing the order often changes focus rather than basic meaning.

Is plafon the normal everyday word for ceiling?

Yes. Plafon is the normal everyday word for ceiling.

So:

plafon = ceiling
sa plafona = from the ceiling

It is a very common word and completely natural in ordinary speech.

Can sa ever mean with instead of from?

Yes. s/sa can also mean with, depending on context.

For example:

Idem sa prijateljem. = I’m going with a friend.

But in Voda curi sa plafona, the meaning is clearly from/off, because the verb curiti describes movement or flow from a source.

So the same preposition can have different English translations:

sa prijateljem = with a friend
sa plafona = from the ceiling

What case is voda in here?

Voda is in the nominative case, because it is the subject of the sentence.

So the sentence has:

voda = nominative, subject
curi = verb
sa plafona = prepositional phrase with genitive

This is a useful pattern to notice:

subject in nominative
preposition sa
- genitive when meaning from/off

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